Bigpond needs power cycling about every few days in my area these days but worst still they sent me an email saying my "Liberty Plan" has been shaped. When I phoned saying I'd never heard of a Liberty plan and that to me my slowest of the slow 256kb broadband plan was taken out years ago because unlimited download means unlimited without shaping because someone in range of WiFi downloaded 8Gb. The Bigpond support person said the email was a mistake and confirmed I was not on the Liberty Plan and that I had not been shaped but the continuing fact is that my boardband speed is slower than dial-up! Was it my new firewall? No. When I took my notebook to a client's office, speed was fast.

WestNet said they are making an announcement soon about a very highspeed broadband. I now miss my iinet ADSL2+ which I had at my Balcatta office last year. The Osborne Park office is good too and getting faster when it switches to AMCOM / AMNET (not sure what the diff is?) I've been told my internet based business could be without the internet for 10 days if I switch to another ISP. That's is a difficult choice to be virtually forced to pay more than $60 pm to Bigpond or lose 10 days of work if switching to an alternate ISP.

We in Australia pay premium prices for sub standard internet service compared to Europe and Korea etc. I understand Australia is a big island with a small population but surely there are communication options to mitigate these problems.

Are you satisfied with your ISP in Perth? Are there too many unacceptable reliability issues? What good news have you got about a Perth ISP?

Bigpond needs power cycling about every few days in my area these days but worst still they sent me an email saying my "Liberty Plan" has been shaped. When I phoned saying I'd never heard of a Liberty plan and that to me my slowest of the slow 256kb broadband plan was taken out years ago because unlimited download means unlimited without shaping because someone in range of WiFi downloaded 8Gb. The Bigpond support person said the email was a mistake and confirmed I was not on the Liberty Plan and that I had not been shaped but the continuing fact is that my boardband speed is slower than dial-up! Was it my new firewall? No. When I took my notebook to a client's office, speed was fast.

WestNet said they are making an announcement soon about a very highspeed broadband. I now miss my iinet ADSL2+ which I had at my Balcatta office last year. The Osborne Park office is good too and getting faster when it switches to AMCOM / AMNET (not sure what the diff is?) I've been told my internet based business could be without the internet for 10 days if I switch to another ISP. That's is a difficult choice to be virtually forced to pay more than $60 pm to Bigpond or lose 10 days of work if switching to an alternate ISP.

We in Australia pay premium prices for sub standard internet service compared to Europe and Korea etc. I understand Australia is a big island with a small population but surely there are communication options to mitigate these problems.

Are you satisfied with your ISP in Perth? Are there too many unacceptable reliability issues? What good news have you got about a Perth ISP?

Ben, nothing negative to add here. I think that in some cases it is merely a case of understanding the economics of the business. Firstly, and my best tip is that people forget the offer the ISP is making when they are shopping for an ISP.dont go for the best offer with all the bells and whistles for you may not get what you seek.Do your homework. Jump onto forums such as whirlpool.net.au and research the ISP in the AREA/ suburb you live or work in.find one with a strong market share as you want reliability and sustainability.Believe it or not, there are some lower bandwifth plans that are so much faster than ADSL2+ plans - and its been tested.So my advice is to speak to people, do your homework and dont always go for the most attractive looking offer as there is no try and buy and you dont need the hassles of tying up your time disputing with ISP's for hours!!

Thanks wooshoo. Interesting. I ended up switching back to iinet's adsl2+ which so far meets my ISP selection criteria of and in order of priority: Reliability Speed Ability to speak with a support person quickly Bandwith Price